This trip report is going to be a bit different, and I make no apology for this. You see, being a photographer I tend to recall things based around pictures I’ve taken, so I’m not going to list all the sites we visited, but I am going to curate the places that have had a particular impact upon me, especially from a visual image point of view. This is difficult on a tour like this as there’s always a lot to choose from, and it is a very personal view. Chatting with our group at the end of each day never stops informing me that whilst there is often universal appreciation for the various delights we may have all encountered that day, each and every individual has their own unique perspective. So alongside sharing with the group the exciting sea snake encounter we had all swim amongst us, there’ll be someone as equally rapt about watching a starfish make its way slowly across the reef, or a pair of tiny bulldozer shrimp and a partner goby doing their thing—keeping what must rank as one of the oddest cohabiting trios in apartment sharing history. Yet another reason to love the enthusiasm for snorkeling and those that do it! First Snorkel of the Tour: “Like Being in a Dream” Our trip began in Siladen Resort, North Sulawesi. This area is known for its bustling sea turtle population. So, I made a wager with my group that I thought almost impossible to lose, yet it didn't make me any less nervous as you never know when Mother Nature might play a cosmic joke on you. I promised the group that, if we didn't see a turtle during our first snorkel I would run naked around Siladen village! So, it was with no small
This trip report is going to be a bit different, and I make no apology for this. You see, being a photographer I tend to recall things based around pictures I’ve taken, so I’m not going to list all the sites we visited, but I am going to curate the places that have had a
Our West Komodo & Alor Snorkel Safari, with Kalimaya and Alami, is one of our newer resort-based snorkel safaris, and we just wrapped our first few tours through these incredible and remote locations. Here’s a little look at how they went. More specifically, here's how the West Komodo/Kalimaya portion of the trip went! https://youtu.be/_Hxw3jiUlQE Kalimaya Kalimaya is a hidden gem, tucked away in a small bay in eastern Sumbawa. We were lucky in that our group had the whole resort to themselves. Not that additional guests would have been an inconvenience at all, as the resort takes a maximum of twenty guests, and our group was fifteen. Arrival Day Upon arrival at the resort around 2 pm, we were treated to a delicious butterfly pea flower tea as our welcome drink, which was a welcome refreshment after our two-hour car ride from the Bima Airport. We were then served a delicious chef-prepared lunch, before which, the chef comes to the table and introduced each dish about to be served. Post lunch, we settled into our beachfront bungalows, got a tour of the lush grounds, and then settled into the comfortable loungers set around the beachside pool. We had intended to jump in on the house reef, but the winds at the time were quite high and the waves stirred up the sand, making a house reef snorkel session quite a bumpy one, not to mention a very murky one. We weren’t bothered, though, we had cold drinks and an incredible view of the ocean. Day to Day Each day started with a breakfast served at 7 am, followed by our boat ride to the different snorkeling sites departing at 8 am. The travel time to the different islands ranged from forty minutes to one hour. We had two dedicated speedboats
Our West Komodo & Alor Snorkel Safari, with Kalimaya and Alami, is one of our newer resort-based snorkel safaris, and we just wrapped our first few tours through these incredible and remote locations. Here’s a little look at how they went. More specifically, here’s how the West Komodo/Kalimaya portion of the trip went! Kalimaya Kalimaya
Palau is a small island nation surrounded by shallow coral reefs in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It sits about 500 km northeast of North Sulawesi and 500 km east of the Philippines. It's remote! This remoteness, however, works to our benefit as snorkelers because the shallow coral reefs are in fantastic condition, they are abundant, as are the fish. While reefs border the entire country of Palau, we tend to concentrate our time in the south, around the Rock Islands and even further south towards Peleliu as that's where we have the most protection from wind and waves, not to mention that's where the best reefs are and the marine life is most abundant. There are only a few flight options for arriving into Palau. Some of the most popular and recommended routes from U.S. are either through Guam via Hawaii or Japan, or via Taipei which has a direct route into Palau several times a week. If you're looking for flights you'll likely see some convenient-looking routes through the Philippines. As convenient as these itineraries look, we'd advise against them as the airports in the Philippines are notorious for delayed or canceled flights, and many of the airlines that route through the Philippines are some of the least reputable ones out there. Palau is quite a small place, with one main town called Koror. There is one Airport which is about 20 minutes outside of town. The nicer ocean-view resorts are about five to ten minutes from town and border the marina. This is generally where we'll spend our time on land as it's where the nicer resorts and restaurants are, it's also the hub for all of our snorkeling activities. Snorkeling While Palau sits just outside the Coral Triangle, it still shares the bulk of the
Palau is a small island nation surrounded by shallow coral reefs in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It sits about 500 km northeast of North Sulawesi and 500 km east of the Philippines. It’s remote! This remoteness, however, works to our benefit as snorkelers because the shallow coral reefs are in fantastic condition, they
Palau has long been on my bucket list of destinations to visit, in fact, Palau was the first place on my personal bucket list primarily because it was the world's first shark sanctuary, and I'm a bit of a shark enthusiast. Over the years I learned more about Palau from friends who've been and it just kept sounding better and better. Not only are the reefs stunning, but it's a great place to swim with mantas, turtles, and a ton of other bigger creatures like Napoleon wrasse. If you're lucky you might even encounter a dugong swimming on the surface as you move from site to site with the boats. It's also home to a jellyfish lake, which, depending on the year and the stage of the bloom, can host anywhere from a hundred to several million stingless jellyfish! Now, having just run my first Palau Snorkleing Safari this last April, I’m here to confirm the rumors are true, it does in fact rock! At the moment, we run our Palau Snorkeling Safari as both a resort-based tour and a liveaboard tour. As such, the first few days were spent staying at the fantastic Cove Resort which looks out onto the famous Rock Islands. Each day we would depart from the marina right in front of The Cove on our very own fully covered speedboat which would take us to our snorkeling sites, anywhere from twenty to forty minutes away. After two nice long morning snorkels punctuated by a lunch in a tranquil lagoon or white sand beach, we'd head back to the resort, arriving around three o'clock for some downtime and quite often a well-deserved cocktail before heading out for dinner together at one of the many great seaside restaurants nearby. Now, that was just the first three days
Palau has long been on my bucket list of destinations to visit, in fact, Palau was the first place on my personal bucket list primarily because it was the world’s first shark sanctuary, and I’m a bit of a shark enthusiast. Over the years I learned more about Palau from friends who’ve been and it
Coral bleaching is something you've probably heard quite a bit about in the past few years, and, unfortunately, are likely to hear more about in the future. The Caribbean had a major bleaching event back in 2005, then later again in 2010, and then just recently experienced another bleaching event in September 2023. Australia's great barrier reef has suffered six mass bleaching events since 2016, all of which make the headlines as it's the largest coral reef system in the world, and arguably the most famous. Common Questions Aside from corals losing their various colors and turning a bright white, what exactly is coral bleaching, and what causes it? Does a bleached coral mean a dead coral? All the corals on the reef were shades of brown and had white tips, does that mean they are dead or about to be bleached? These are just a few of the questions we regularly get as snorkeling guides. So, to set the record straight here are some cold hard facts, as well as some anecdotal encounters. Coral Anatomy Before we get into coral bleaching, we need to know a bit about the anatomy of the corals. Corals are often equated to terrestrial plants, trees, and flowers. However, one table coral, for example, is not just a single living thing, like a fern or a pine tree. A table coral, or any hard coral for that matter, is actually a colony of a bunch of identical coral polyps all living together in a symbiotic relationship. These coral polyps are all hosted together on the calcium carbonate structure that they have created through their own secretions. Each coral polyp has a set of tentacles that are used to capture food, ward off predators, and clean themselves. The tentacles also host zooxanthellae, a type of
Coral bleaching is something you’ve probably heard quite a bit about in the past few years, and, unfortunately, are likely to hear more about in the future. The Caribbean had a major bleaching event back in 2005, then later again in 2010, and then just recently experienced another bleaching event in September 2023. Australia’s great
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The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
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